How Little They'll Miss Him

After all these months of waiting for Kwame Kilpatrick to finally go away, the Detroit city council is in no hurry to find his replacement, ...

After all these months of waiting for Kwame Kilpatrick to finally go away, the Detroit city council is in no hurry to find his replacement, the Free Press reports:

The Detroit City Council unanimously decided [Tuesday] to delay action for a week on whether to schedule a special election to fill the remainder of resigning Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's term.

Council members had been expected to take up a plan to hold a special primary Feb. 24 and a special general election May 5.

But with no action needed until December, council members said they wanted to get more legal analysis about their options from the city's Law Department and council attorneys.

There have been concerns about the $3 million cost of a special election when 2009 will see regular elections for mayor anyway.

"I think there are a lot of different ramifications for us to consider," said Council President Pro Tem Monica Conyers. "Some people want a court opinion to see if it's beneficial for us to spend $6 million on elections in one year."

Said Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel: "Let's wait a week or two. It's not like if this doesn't happen today the bottom falls out of the policy issue."